“Which type of person are you? Do you thrive on the pressure of a deadline or do you use the deadline to keep you on task?”
I confess to hating deadlines. I know they are a necessary evil but I despise them. A deadline to me is like having the world hanging over my head waiting to crash down on top of me. I’m so afraid that I will miss a deadline and look like an awful person.
If I know something needs to be sent to someone by a certain time, I flag my email. Then I try to send it to them as soon as possible so I don’t forget about it.
I pay all of my bills online and make sure they are submitted a day or two in advance because I’m afraid there will be some glitch and it won’t be recorded on time.
When I taught and had to have a report turned in to my principal, I would plan on having it completed at least a week in advance.
Even with my classroom lessons, I would plan everything a week in advance. Then I would have all my supplies prepared that week in advance. I worried that the copier would break or I wouldn’t remember to bring in all the necessary materials.
I will be speaking at a conference in March and I’m already stressing out about it. I’ve had some rough notes already done and ideas are swarming around my head. I know I need to start on the actual presentation but I haven’t.
So, for me, deadlines are both motivating and stressing. I hate the way they make me feel.
In the past, I have joined knitting contests and scrapbook contests with deadlines. This past year, I only entered one contest that has a monthly deadline and I finish my project in the first week so I don’t have to worry about it all month. This has really made my knitting and scrapbooking much more fun for me.
So, I’ve decided that unless I have a deadline needed for a professional obligation, I am not putting any more deadlines on me. This is a choice I can make. I won’t let guilt or the fear of making someone disappointed cause me to make a commitment that involves deadlines. I realize that deadlines take the fun out of things for me.
I need to remember that my students may feel the same way that I do. I don’t want to take the fun out of learning but I do think deadlines teach responsibility. When they get out in the real world, there will be deadlines that they will need to meet. But I need to make sure that if they are learning something for fun, I do not take the fun out of their learning.
How do you feel about deadlines? Please share.
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